Nick Kyrgios knows he must seize on any mid-match brain fades from US Open specialist Mikhail Youzhny to have any hope of repeating his magical run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Kyrgios will be the first of three Australians in action on day one of the Open at Flushing Meadows, hitting Court 17 against Russia's 21st seed at 11am Monday (1am Tuesday AEST).
A semi-finalist in 2006 and 2010, Youzhny boasts several big-name scalps including injured defending champion Rafael Nadal and former titleholder and world No.1 Andy Roddick, and last year ousted 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt in five sets to reach the last eight once more.
But while a gifted shot-maker, the 32-year-old is also prone to mental meltdowns and can blow hot and cold on any given day.
"One thing you can expose in his game a little bit is maybe mentally," Kyrgios told AAP.
"So I'm going to go out there and, if I'm serving well, it's going to be tough for him to get a rhythm.
"I'm just going to stay composed, obviously have fun and if my chance is there, I'm going to try and grab it.
"It's going to be a tough match, no doubt. There's going to be parts of that match where I'm going to be hurting physically.
"But he might be feeling a bit of pressure too. He's the expected winner of that match."
Kyrgios has only won one match - and played three - since conquering Nadal to gatecrash the Wimbledon quarter-finals last month.
The 19-year-old excitement machine has had to manage a left arm stress fracture and admits the injury is still causing him some concern.
"Obviously my arm is not great, but not bad," he said.
"It's good enough for me to go out there and I'm just going to do what I can with what I've got right now.
"The rest of my body is good. I'm probably moving the best I've ever moved and physically I'm feeling strong and fit as well."
Up to 59th in the world following his All England Club heroics, Kyrgios admitted the burden of expectation was weighing him down a little.
He planned to de-stress on Saturday night with fellow Australian young gun Bernard Tomic.
"I'm just going to chill out," Kyrgios said.
"I've got my PS4 here. I'll probably play with Bernard and probably not sleep that much. Boys will boys, I guess."
An upset win over Youzhny would pit Kyrgios into a second-round match-up with either Andreas Seppi or Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Fellow Australians Matt Ebden and Anastasia Rodionova will also be gunning for spots in the second round on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
Ebden opens against German Tobias Kamke, while Rodionova plays Italian Camila Giorgi.
Share
